Guitar

Greats
Sounds, Styles & Licks

Riffs Vol 02

Guitar Coach: Special Edition

GUITAR COACH MAGAZINE: SPECIAL EDITION: GUITAR GREATS SOUNDS, STYLES & LICKS

Tab Book

Guitar Greats

Guitar Coach Special Edition

The sound & style of: Albert Lee

Albert Lee is one of the finest pickers in
Country Music.

Twin amps, as they give a good clean sound with

plenty of bite.

When Albert stormed into the American country

scene back in the 60's he bought his own twist to
the genre; he played with flair and unadulterated
speed. He always looked happy when he was
chickin' pickin' his way through tracks such as
'Country Boy' and Hogan Heroes 'Can Your Grandpa
Rock 'n' Roll like this.

He would usually have the bridge and middle pickups selected in order to achieve a good snap. Lee
would also use a compressor and some
chorus; the chorus specifically would be signature
to his sound as well as adding depth and
shimmer to an already super clean tone.

Lee's style was very precise and his sense of

timing was second to none, due to his ability to fit
licks and phrases into whatever feel he was playing
across. He influenced many people from Zakk Wylde
to Brent Mason and everyone in
between!
Albert plays music-man guitars with a strat-style
pickup configuration and puts those into Fender

Tab

Mr Albert was a fantastic hybrid picker (pick & fingers) and used it in everything he did. What this
gives is a 'clucking' sound and allows easier movement over the fretboard to create some of those
classic country bends and doublestops. The compressor would also help the strings pop and snap
evenly through the amp.
YEEHAW!

Guitar Greats

Guitar Coach Special Edition

The sound & style of: Angus Young

School Boy Forever; Angus! Angus!

and hot-rodded Chuck Berry licks (High Voltage).

Angus Young is one half of the perhaps the most

prolific riff-writing duo this side of Jimmy

Setup was simple; Young would put an SG

straight into a 100w Marshall stack. Everything
he did was via the guitar control but 9.99 times
out of 10 he would be playing balls to the
wall,wide open every time. For a little more
output he would dig in on the strings hard which
would hit the valves in the amp harder and,
likewise, to back off he would switch to fingers or
jet simply play softer. Another key aspect to point
out is that while his sound may hint at quite a bit
of gain, it is actually quite dialled back. Just goes
to show how hard Mr Young played.

Page. Armed with his schoolboy out fit and

Gibson SG he is instantly recognisable whoever
you are and he played with such venom it was as
convincing as you'll ever get. Young played like
a man possessed attacking the guitar and playing
his phrases like it was his last move on
earth; that was key, because even if they were
cliche blues licks no-one played them quite like
Angus Young. Ever the performer, Angus would
also throw in one-handed pull-offs
(Thunderstruck), Pick scrapes (Highway To Hell)

Tab

Grab your satchel

Guitar Greats

Guitar Coach Special Edition

The sound & style of: Bryan May

Brian May has written some of the most memorable riffs in the history of rock music.
Mr May not only brought a unique homemade
guitar to the table but a playing style that was
just as quirky. He only every played to add to the
song and with solo's such as those in 'Bohemian
Rhapsody' and 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' it is
easy to see why he made a name for himself.
What made Brian so distinct was his use of gold
plated strings and a sixpence for a plectrum; this
coupled with the switching system on his 'Red
Special' guitar make for some very recognisable
tones.
Brian liked to crank 3 Vox AC30's right the way up
in order to achieve natural Overdrive and boosted
this further by using a treble booster pedal to

Tab

push them into singing sustain. By varying the

touch with his sixpence he could coax so much
from such a simple set up, so be sure to switch
between digging in hard or barely striking the
strings in order to achieve a multi-tide of sounds
like Mr May.
We should pull focus to the 'Red Special' Guitar;
Brian built this with his father out of an old fireplace and a bicycle and it is a work of sonic art.
What it has that some of us mere mortals don't
have is a around 6 different switching systems
for 3 single coil pickups, so we must do the best
that we can with a single-coil equipped guitar or
sorts. Have no fear though, because Brian May is
all about playing the simple things well and with
conviction.
READY FREDDIE?

Guitar Greats

Guitar Coach: Special Edition

The Sound & Style Of: Derek Trucks

Slide guitar there's no one better
than this Truckster.
Derek Trucks started playing slide at the rip old
age of 10 years old purely because he hands were
too small to reach round the guitar neck. From
that point he went on to play with Joe
Walsh, The Allman Brothers and Eric Clapton to
name but a few. Trucks' style is very unique in the
way he can coax almost any sound from his
interment with a slide; he often creates lines
influenced heavily by Indian music as well as
drawing from the original delta blues folk and
players such as Duane Allman and Sonny
Landreth.
Derek uses Gibson guitars for the majority and

Tab

employs a 61 SG as his main guitar but has been

seen with Les Pauls and Firebirds. He plugs these
straight into Fender Twins or, more recently, PRS
amps and then brings more overdrive into the
mix by using the guitar's volume
knob. The reason for his amp choice is so he can
get a relatively clean sound for clarity. Very rarely
will there be an overdrive. Trucks' will use a wah
occasionally to add another dimension to his
tone, and it is worth pointing out he doesn't use a
plectrum at all; he prefers to have complete
control over his strings so this way he can almost
create any nuance-slide or no slide-with his
fingers by flicking, slapping and pulling.
Time to go to the river

Guitar Greats

Guitar Coach Special Edition

The Sound & Style Of: Eddie Van Halen

EVH turned rock guitar on it's head
when he burst onto the scene in 1979.
Eddie brought two-handed tapping to the fore
and every guitar player in the early 80's wanted
to know exactly how he was doing it; at first
he turned his back to the audience when
executing the technique, but it was soon to
become a staple of Van Halen's live
performances.
More importantly Eddie played with a smile on
his face making everything look effortless,
and he was one of the first users of the Floyd
Rose tremolo system-divebombs and squeals
galore!
EVH built his own guitars in the beginning which
have now culminated in his own Wolfgang
signature series with Fender; but in the
beginning it was stray-style guitars with a hum
bucking pickup in the bridge position and those
familiar stripes. Eddie's signal chain

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consisted of a wah-wah pedal-which he

modified-a phaser pedal and a flanger. All those
familiar riffs such as a 'Panama' and 'Unchained'
were recorded with these boxes. From there it
was into a non-master volume Marshall head;
100w of pure, unadulterated, cranked british
goodness!
It was due to EVH's desire to drive these amps
into singing overdrive by using either a hotplate
(a device used to allow the cranking of valve
heads at a more accessible volume) or winding
the volume/gain up to ear-splitting volumes. So,
to avoid clearing a hole in the front 5 rows of a
show, Amp companies started making amps with
master volumes so you could argue that Mr Van
Halen invented the master-volume amp.
Let's go and grab our favourite spandex and
mullet as we go and recreate some signature
EVH sounds WOW!

Guitar Greats

Guitar Coach Special Edition

The Sound & Style Of: Jimmy Page

Jimmy Page is often viewed as THE
riff-master in all of classic rock.
Page wrote some of the most iconic riffs of all
time and was one of the finest producers to boot;
he made Zeppelin sound roaring. Jimmy was well
known for being a lazy player with his
Les Paul slung low and marshall cranked high;
he dragged his pick across the strings like a
bourbon-soaked bluesman and cared not for
what anyone thought. He was said to have played
with gauge 8 strings at times but who knows,
he was a devout Les Paul player but often
recorded with Telecasters in the studio as well
as guitars in variety of different tunings
he was a tinker and boy do we love him for it.
Page was very much old school with his tone; Les

Tab

Paul into a Marshall with a wah, chorus and

probably an overdrive in the middle. This was his
live rig and it worked to devastating effect.
He sometimes employed a violin bow to get long,
sustained notes from his axe and occasionally
used a theremin for sonic variety.
What is key to JP's sound is his loose and ropey
feel; it was rockstar and it was cool as a cucumber.
He raked the strings and he flicked behind
the nut as well as bending to extremes
during solo passages; so when recreating Page's
sound make sure you're relaxed and 'feeling' the
music. Zeppelin was all about being off kilter and
off key; it was an intentional manner.
Jumpsuits are order of the day and dragons

Guitar Greats

Guitar Coach Special Edition

The Sound & Style Of: Slash

Who knew one man could bring back good
time rock 'n' roll?
The man known as Slash arrived in 1988 coated in
leather with a low-slung Les Paul, a top hate and
an iconic cigarette to boot; Rock music was about
to get a shot in the arm. Armed with the classic
LP-Marshall combo Slash created simple yet
solidly executed riffs and crafted
vocal-like guitar solo's that are still revered today
some 20 years later. His style was the
perfect blend of an earthy-bluesy core with
rough, brash edges and his sharp, quick vibrato
added a familiarity to his already signature
phrasing. They key is image as well as style and
technique.
Slash's first 'real' guitar was a hand-built Les Paul
replica combined with a Marshall JCM 800;
the tone was warm and round with plenty of grit

Tab

and grind to get the job done. Not as gainheavy

as some would think; whatever you think you
SHOULD have back it off a little.
In between those stalwarts of rock is a very
sparse pedal board, but the most important one
on the board is without a doubt a wah wah
pedal; The most individual and vocal pedal
accessible to guitarists. Slash uses it to fantastic
effect in solo's such as 'Sweet Child O' Mine'
and 'You Could Be Mine'. He has a signature
model with Jim Dunlop effects. The other 2 pedals
on the board are a Boost pedal to push the amp
a little harder for solo sections, and a chorus
pedal for clean passages.
Slash liked to take his clean and dirty sounds
from his amp and use very sparse effects to
'colour in' so to speak.
Top Hats are go!!!

Guitar Greats

Guitar Coach Special Edition

The Sound & Style Of: Zakk Wylde

Ozzy Osbourne's longest serving guitar player;
the often terrifying - and monstrous, Zakk Wylde.
Mr Wylde had more than a slight similarity to the
late, great Randy Rhoads; the bell-bottomed jeans,
the flowing golden hair, the white Les Paul custom
All that though was soon forgotten when Zakk had
the now synonymous black bullseye graphic placed
upon his steed and shredded his way out of the
80's. Wylde brought back the
sounds of his idols in the form of classic riffery,
stinging solo's and signature sound; it was a new
guitar hero for a new guitar generation and he
seized the opportunity like a dog with a bone.
ZW is a ferocious alternate picker and often uses
nothing but said technique, however, this singles
him out as one of the most recognisable players in
rock; coupled with his astonishing
3 fret-wide vibrato. There is no-one quite as scary as
a 6ft giant with technique such as this
Zakk's sound is very much a tried and tested combo;

Tab

Les Paul guitar into Marshall Stack.

However, there are a few tweaks in between that
really make it 'sing'.
Zakk uses EMG pickups which are active (9v battery
powered) which add compression to the natural
sound of the guitar, and from there it goes into a
few well chosen pedals; first is a
signature wah wah pedal which is voiced to Wylde's
specs (boosted treble and Les Paul
specific), then into a rotovibe pedal (which is
a controllable chorus pedal in a wah housing).
From there he goes into an Overdrive pedal to push
the already crunchy amp into sweet
sustain for leads, followed by a phaser and a chorus
pedal split into stereo (divided across 2 amps). All
these are used very sparingly but in exactly the
right spots.
Time for some classic metal skulduggery!